10 December 2012

Our latest news analysis for EBONY is on the front page: "Supreme Court to Take on Same Sex Marriage." University of California - Los Angeles Professor Mignon Moore
(left) and her wife Elaine Harley were married in New York last March.
They want their marriage to be recognized in California and nationwide. What will the court decide?

"[I'm] concerned given the conservative nature of the court," says University of California – Los Angeles Associate Professor of Sociology Mignon Moore.
“But now we have nine states that mandate same-sex marriage and
hopefully the court will want to be on the right side of history.”

Moore and her wife Elaine Harley have been together almost 11 years and
were married last March in New York. “We want our marriage to be
recognized like any other marriage,” says Harley. “Voters should not
have that power over someone else’s civil rights.”

06 January 2010

After Project Runway 6's disappointing season in Los Angeles, the show thankfully returns to New York City. The new television and internet promos for the seventh season prominently feature contestant Anthony Williams. At the beginning of the spot, Williams stands in front of a mirror and says he is "stacked, packed, and ready to attack." Later, he tells the camera: "It is hell being black, gay and in the ghetto!"

The images above via Windy City Times from the Chicago vigil. It began with a peace walk at the corner of Division and California, and ended with a candlelight vigil in Humboldt Park Boat House. About two hundred people showed up, including several local aldermen and the city's major Latino LGBT activists. The weather was decent and it was great to see many young people participating.

Meanwhile in New York City: An estimated 2,000 braved the chilly weather to gather at the Christopher Street Pier to honor the memory of murdered gay teen. Council Speaker Christine Quinn, GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios, openly gay Council member-elect Danny Dromm and Project Runway fashion designer Malan Breton spoke to the crowd. The New York City photos are via JoeMyGod.

There were 20 nationwide events. Some attending the rallies also carried signs remembering Jason Mattison, who was killed in Baltimore the same week that Mercado was slain in Puerto Rico.

Best. Gay. Week. Ever also interviews modeling hotness Ronnie Kroell, the openly gay winner of the first season of Bravo's Make Me a Supermodel. Project Runway's Jack Mackenroth, the openly gay and HIV positive fashion designer, offers his highlights (and lowlights) of fashion week and the Academy Awards. Very flattering for After Elton to include us in the same column with Kroell and Mackenroth.

13 October 2008

Jamaican-born supermodel-to-be and Rod 2.0 fave Oraine Barrett is the featured face, body and hotness in the new promo for GMHC's Fahion Forward gala. The event salutes the fashion industry's longstanding commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS and is hosted by style guru Tim Gunn. Soon you should see the spots broadcast on Bravo and LOGO.

Last year was the first Fashion Forward and the promo featured fellow Major Model and Rod 2.0 fave Chad White It's great to see Oraine Barrett getting some recognition and working for such a great cause.

25 September 2008

Obviously Project Runway 5 is on life support until the show migrates to Lifetime, but, there were some interesting moments on last night's episode. (Recap at TVGasm) Rod 2.0 fave LL Cool J was the guest judge—his appearance not promoted by the network, no surprise there—in a challenge that required the contestants to design for each other. The look was to be inspired by a genre of music. Unfortunately for those watching, music and style icon LL Cool was not wearing his most memorable outfit.

A few screencaptures and quick thoughts on the episode:

It's good to see that Korto Momolu and Jerrell Scott will be in the final four. Korto has always been one of our favorites and she deserved to win last night for Suede's transformation into an 80s punk rocker. Also: We dissed Jerrell when the show premiered and need to apologize. Jerrell has proven himself to be quite capable and has won two contests so far. Jerrell's channeled Britney Spears to create a pop idol creation for Kenley. She looked remarkable.

If anyone deserved to be Auf'd, it was Kenley, who used to be one of our favorites but revealed herself (along with Terri) to be petulant, rude and argumentative. Last night Kenley was rude to Tim Gunn. A big no-no. Kenley's "hip hop creation" for Leanne—who is freakin fabulous, she and Korto killed the Diane von Furstenberg challenge—was dated and poorly constructed. OTOH Kenley looked very good on the runway in Jerrell's creation. LL was clearly not impressed and at least Kenley admitted she was embarassed.

24 July 2008

Let's be honest. Project Runway has gone from the must-see tv of the seasons 1, 2 and especially 3—MichaelKnight! Laura Bennett! Uli!—to last season's so-so creations to ... this year. It's obvious Proj Run is on life support until the show migrates to Lifetime and the producers and cast are phoning it in. However ... it's heartening to see such a diverse cast. All except one of the men are gay. Plenty of rockers and biker chicks,. Silly third person Suede. Blayne, the tanorexic wigger ("Holla atcha boy!"). Two very fierce sistahs and ... well, then there's Jerell Scott.

How to say this gently? Jerell is just not very impressive. If you can get beyond the voice and the "child" and "girl" country queenisms—think Alex on Noah's Arc—Jerell's creations are less than inspiring and borderline pedestrian. The Gristede's challenge? Not much of a wow factor there.Oh, and it's very interesting watching him choose his models. Not very diverse.

25 June 2007

Elizabeth Edwards raises the bar for presidential candidates and their spouses. Yesterday she kicked off San Francisco's annual gay pride parade by breaking with her husband over same-sex marriage: "I don't know why someone else's marriage has anything to do with me," Mrs. Edwards said at a news conference before the parade started. "I'm completely comfortable with gay marriage."

Mrs. Edwards says her husband, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, "has a deeply held belief against any form of discrimination, but that's up against his being raised in the 1950s in a rural southern town. John believes that couples in committed long-term relationships should enjoy the same rights, benefits and responsibilities regardless of whether they are straight couples or same-sex couples. He supports civil unions."

The high profile policy split comes as the Edwards campaign recently strongly re-positioned itself on some LGBT issues. None
of the top three Democratic candidate support same-sex marriage. John
Edwards—a former senator from North Carolina—and Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama support civil unions for gay couples and scrapping portions of the Defense of Marriage Act. That last position is a dramatic departure for all three candidates.

This is not the first time a candidate's spouse veered from the party line. Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush were pro-choice, as their husbands had previously been. Also, in 2000 and 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney, whose daughter Mary is lesbian, famously said he supported same-sex unions and was against a proposed marriage amendment.

31 August 2006

There is good news, even better news, and, fantastic news after last night's episode of Project Runway.

The good news, of course, is that once again, Michael Knight wowed them in one of the more interesting challenges thus far—creating an outfit for an international jet-setter, which turned out to be, "design yourself an outfit." The added bonus was the surprise trip to fabulous and gay-friendly Paris.

Michael's concept was fun, hip and wearable. He choose to update cargo pants—weren't we just discussing those?—with seersucker, best friend to many a businessman and traveling gay across the world. Michael Kors confirmed that on the runway: "I absolutely looooove seersucker. Those pants are marvelous."

However, it is possible that Kors' attention may have been focused elsewhere:

28 August 2006

· Photographer Michael Golden pays tribute to the incomparable Geoffrey Holder on his Icon Blog. The iconic actor-dancer-artist probably first came to our attention when we were quite young, with his role in Live and Let Die—ugh, one of the worst Bond films—and those fabulous commecrials for 7Up.